


Art Appreciation

by ami_ven



Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: Community: writerverse, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-30
Packaged: 2018-11-21 08:56:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11354112
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ami_ven/pseuds/ami_ven
Summary: “What do you think?”





	Art Appreciation

**Author's Note:**

> Written for LJ community "writerverse" prompt “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” (Edgar Degas)

“What do you think?” asked Data, setting the finished painting on his easel.

It was a painting of fruit, artfully arranged in a ceramic bowl and extremely detailed, down to the shine on the apple and a smudge on the bowl.

“It’s… nice,” Geordi offered.

Data tilted his head. “You do not like it?”

“I didn’t say that,” his friend protested. “I just, I’m not sure I understand. Why fruit?”

“Fruit is a common subject to many classical painters.”

“No, Data, I mean, why did _you_ paint fruit?”

“I have been painting many of the same subjects as early painters to better understand the process.”

Geordi frowned at the painting. “Do you even like fruit?”

“I neither like it nor dislike it,” said Data.

“Then what are you trying to tell me with the painting?”

“I was not trying to tell you anything, Geordi. It is simply a depiction of a bowl of fruit.”

“Well, then, maybe that’s the problem,” the engineer said. “We have holocameras that can capture an accurate image of, say, a bowl of fruit. A painting should make the viewer see things from _your_ point of view, should feel what you want them to feel when they look at it. Even if you are painting fruit.”

Data paused, considering. “It will be difficult to evoke an emotional response in my audience that I cannot feel myself,” he said. “But I will consider it a challenge.”

Geordi grinned. “That’s the spirit.”

THE END


End file.
